energy
Russia again stops gas delivery via the Yamal pipeline
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom gave no reasons for the stopped gas delivery via the Yamal pipeline. Photo: Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA / dpa / archive
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Moscow had already pumped gas through the pipeline in Brandenburg in the opposite direction at the beginning of November. Now another delivery has been stopped. Reasons were initially not given.
On Tuesday, Russia again stopped the supply of natural gas via the Russian-European Yamal-Europe pipeline. As on nine days at the beginning of November, gas has been pumped in the opposite direction to Poland at the Mallnow compressor station since the morning.
The delivery volume had already been significantly reduced in the three days before, according to data published on the Internet by the gas network operator Gascade.
The Kremlin in Moscow described the move as an economic decision, not a political one. Reasons were initially not given – neither by the Kremlin nor by the state company Gazprom. There is also no connection with the filling of the second line of the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov of the Interfax agency. The fact that gas is flowing in the other direction in Mallnow is nothing unusual, said a Gascade spokeswoman.
The Federal Network Agency has not yet approved the operation of Nord Stream 2 from Russia to Germany. Critics see the gas pipeline primarily as a geopolitical project by Moscow.
No capacity booked
According to Interfax, the gas giant Gazprom had not booked any transport capacity to Germany for Tuesday. Instead, the gas was pumped in the opposite direction – from Germany to Poland. On Monday, the amount in the direction of Germany was only 3.8 million cubic meters of gas. In November, between 30 million and 40 million cubic meters of gas were reportedly being pumped through the Yamal pipeline every day.
Around two thirds of the gas imported into Germany
come from Russia and the CIS countries, according to the Federal Network Agency.
Most of the gas imports arriving in Germany are passed through, often to Austria and the Netherlands. In 2020, a good 23 percent of Russian gas reached Germany via Poland.
The amount of gas piped to Poland on Tuesday was initially comparatively small. Extrapolated to 24 hours, the energy content of the amount was 30 gigawatt hours. On November 3, however, the value was still 132 gigawatt hours.